Op zoek naar de definitie van leren in de 'mobile age'.

Nu de pilot van het podcastproject min of meer gedocumenteerd is, in elk geval van een min of meer beschouwende omgeving voorzien is, wil ik verder zoeken naar argumenten of onderzoeksresultaten die mijn intuitie over de goede educatieve mogelijkheden van podcasten bevestigen. En dan ontdek je dat de wereld -in elk geval de mijne- van toevalligheden aan elkaar hangt. Vorige week werd ik benaderd door een promovenda van professor Kirchner, Angelina Popova die een onderzoek naar de educatieve effecten van podcasten voor academische studenten aan het voorbereiden is. Zij vroeg me om studenten die mbv podcasten studeren. Jammer genoeg hebben we die niet dus dat gaat niet door. Ter informatie stuurde ze mij haar onderzoeksvoorstel. Ik heb tot nu toe nog niet veel aandacht aan de literatuur over mobile learning besteed en was dan ook nogal verrast door wat Popova mij aanreikte. Ik noteer hier enkele citaten die mij zeer te pas komen. Mischien haal ik er wel argumenten en misschien wel bewijzen uit voor mijn intuities over het belang van podcasten voor het onderwijs.

1. Over de oorspronkelijke podcast (de audio file):
- the design of the audio file – as is the case with any educational medium - plays an important rol on its impact and influence (Laaser,1986; Power & Moore, 1987)
- podcasts have primarily an entertainment function; using it for educational purposes has to be integrated with other learning activities (Edirisingha, Salmon, & Fothergill, 2006)
- learning from listening has psychological and pedagogical advantages, though a podcast could be compared to Solomon’s (1981) characterization of television as an easy medium, that is that the user may just “sit back and listen” and not make the mental effort necessary for learning to take place.

2. Drie premisses:
Laaser (1986) defined three basic characteristics of instructional design of audio programs: 1) the dramaturgical design (i.e., the interaction between persons participating); 2) the didactic function or teaching objective; and 3) the reciprocal relations to other media and to student activities.

3. (Bates, 1997; Dede, 1996; Garrison, 1997). Sharples, Taylor and Vavoula (2006) try to build a theory of learning in the mobile age and define mobile learning as “the processes of coming to know through conversations across multiple contexts amongst people and personal interactive technologies” (p.4).
Podcasts can possibly be considered in the perspective of the conversational approach to learning. Conversation theory (Pask, 1976) describes learning in terms of conversations between different systems of knowledge. Learning is a continual conversation between the external world and its artefacts and oneself, and also with other learners and teachers. The most successful learning comes when the learner is in control of the activity, is able to test ideas by performing experiments, can ask questions, can collaborate with other people, can seek out new knowledge, and can plan new actions. In other words, the locus of control is transferred from the instructor to the learner and the learner (meta)regulates her or his learning activities.

4. Podcasts can also be positioned in the perspective of the constructivist learning, as constructivist learning is considered an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based on their current and past knowledge (Bruner, 1966). In order to transform learners from passive recipients of information to active constructors of knowledge, teachers must give learners an environment in which to participate in the learning process, and the appropriate tools to work with that knowledge. In this respect it is the design of the podcast and the learning activity it is designed to stimulate or facilitate, that determines the construction of knowledge. This can be shared construction with the aid of peers (i.e., a peer-podcast) or individual construction through reflection and internal dialogue stimulated by questions or tasks in the podcast.

5. there are some general characteristics of listening and its connection with learning, which are in favour of using audio for learning (Clark & Walsh, 2004):
• Hearing as a learning channel
• Listening is instinctual
• Listening gets round illiteracy and dyslexia
• Listening frees eyes and hands
• Listening is socially acceptable
• Listening is a mobile medium

6. The effectiveness of using primer podcasts relates to Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory (DCT). Paivio (1986) states that “Human cognition is unique in that it has become specialized for dealing simultaneously with language and with nonverbal objects and events. Moreover, the language system is peculiar in that it deals directly with linguistic input and output (in the form of speech or writing) while at the same time serving a symbolic function with respect to nonverbal objects, events, and behaviors. Concretely, DCT assumes that information is processed through one of two separate but interrelated channels: the verbal channel or the visual channel.

7. Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML, 2001) builds on DCT and makes three main assumptions: (1) information is processed through two separate subsystems for verbal and nonverbal information, (2) meaningful learning involves conscious processing, and (3) there is a limit to the capacity of working memory (Moreno & Valdez, 2005).

8. En dan de volgende literatuurlijst:
Andre, T. (1979). On productive knowledge of levels of questions. Review of Educational Research, 49, 280-318.
Bates, A. W. (1981). Radio: the forgotten medium? Studies in the use of radio programming and audiocassettes in Open University courses. Papers on Broadcasting, No. 185. Milton Keynes, UK: Institute of Educational Technology.
Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18, 32-42.
Dede, C. (1996). The evolution of distance education: Emerging technologies and distributed learning. The American Journal of Distance Education, 10(2) 4-36
Durbridge, N. (1984). Media in course design, No. 9, audio cassettes. The Role of technology in distance education. Kent, UK: Croom Helm.
Edirisingha, P., Salmon, G., & Fothergill, J. (2006). Profcasting: a pilot study and a model for integrating podcasts into online learning. A paper proposal for the EDEN 2006 research conference in Barcelona
IMPALA project 2006). The pedagogical perspectives of mobile learning. Retrieved on 01.02.2007 from http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/impala/documents
JISC (2005). Innovative practice with e-learning, Bristol, UK: Joint Information Systems Committee.
Kirschner, P. A., Van den Brink, H. & Meester, M. A. M. (1991). Audiotape feedback for essays in distance education. Innovative Higher Education, 15, 185-195.
Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Moreno, R., & Valdez, A. (2005). Cognitive load and learning effects of having students organize pictures and words in multimedia environments: The role of student interactivity and feedback. Educational Technology Research & Development, 53(3), 35 45.
Ohlsson, S. (1996). Learning to do and learning to understand. In P. Reimann, & H. Spada (Eds.), Learning in humans and machines (pp. 37–62). Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
Paivio, A. (1986). Mental Representations. New York: Oxford University Press,p.53
Paivio, A. (1991). Images in mind: The evolution of a theory. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Pask, G. (1976). Conversational techniques in the study and the practice of education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, (46), 12–25.
Power, D. J., & Moore, J. (1987). The audio-graphic technique: A flexible multimedia approach for self-paced instruction. Paper presented at Distance Education by Design Symposium. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Sariola, J., & Rionka, A. (2003). Mobile learning in teacher education - The LIVE project. In H. Kynaslahti & P. Seppala (Eds). Mobile learning. Helsinki, FI: IT Press
Scanlon, E., Jones, A., & Waycott, J. (2005). Mobile technologies: Prospects for their use in learning in informal science settings, Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 25, 1–17. [Available online at http;//jime.open.ac.uk. [accessed 25 Jan 2006].
Salomon, G. (1981): Communication and education. London: Sage
Sharples, M., Taylor, J., & Vavoula, G., (in press). A theory of learning for the mobile age. In R. Andrews & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), Handbook of e-learning Research, (pp 221-247). London: Sage Publications.
Taylor, J., Sharples, M. O’Malley, C. Vavoula, G. & Waycott, J. 2006, ‘Towards a Task Model for Mobile Learning: a Dialectical Approach’, University of Birmingham. Retrieved 5 February 2007 from http://www.eee.bham.ac.uk/sharplem/Papers/Task%20Model.pdf
Woods, R., & Keeler, J. (2001). The effect of instructor’s use of audio e-mail messages on student participation in and perceptions of online learning: A preliminary case study. Open Learning, 16, 263-278.